FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast Brighton August 23rd

[slowmotion]

That was really good fun. It rained a bit but I never got cold. I got a bit uncomfortable, early on, inside my boil in a bag jacket, but nothing too awful. It was great to meet new people , and to get to know some of the "old lags" better. I hope that the Groupsave foursome all got back to London safely. Somehow we managed to part company on the station platform, probably due to my sleep-deprived stupidity.
A very big thanks to Simon, the waymarkers and the TECs. Top peeps.

 

[dellzeqq]

 

[dellzeqq]

A big thankyou to Hatler and his merry crew. We had (I think) thirteen punctures. Two of those were mine, and didn't delay us overmuch, if at all, and one was spotted in The Edifice, but the other ten had to be dealt with in the rain, and two or three of those were Brompton rears. That was hard work. Hatler's promotion from coffee-wallah to TEC is now permanent!

I am considering a new rule......Brompton rear tyres must be Marathon Pluses.

As for the undertaking. That is a rule. And it's staying. It's not about the person doing the undertaking - it's about the person being passed. Ours is a club with a wide variety of experience, confidence and speeds. We all of us have to allow for that. Give the person in front some room, and, if you're being held up, drop back, wait for a safe spot, and pass on the right.

Charlie told me he was leading his first ride this weekend. My advice to him was that sometimes you have to tell people what to do. It won't always be perfect, but there's got to be some kind of framework, particularly if people's expectations vary. My most frequent mistake is not to be as straightforward as I should be. I asked somebody to mark the left turn at Lonesome Lane, but I didn't do it in as definite and pointed way as I should have done. Hence the need for Fred's heroics.

Those of you who were looking out for me....thankyou for that and the things that were said.

 

[hatler]

I tell you what, I'm glad I took my tyres off and de-glassed them last week.

 

[Steve Jones]

My first properly wet fnrttc, and I still enjoyed it, although being a glasses wearer it got rather scary as it was like looking furtively through a steamed up shower screen. Not that I've any experience of that of course. However, the somewhat random optical effects meant that I couldn't even do some much-needed drafting on the fast bits to Lindfield, as my world view deteriorated from a slightly steamy one to a petrifying, high-speed dazzling red one as high powered leds played kaleidoscopic patterns across my retina.

However, thanks to the mild weather, I was never uncomfortable, rather confirming that it's keeping warm that's important, not being dry. In fact I was much colder coming back on the train where my body decided it had enough of burning calories to keep me warm.

I didn't suffer one of the night's myriad punctures, about which I feel somewhat smug as I've got a magic set of tyres which I normally reserve for winter riding which has yet to ever let me down in both a literal and metaphorical sense. (Although the magic doesn't extend to a carpet-like ride, but you can't have everything).

I did get to do a bit of junction pointing, and spent a fair amount of times under dripping trees, including barking SImon's orders to slow down along Slugwash Lane (I suspect the reckless play no heed, and those that do listen would probably crawl along - as I did - from their own sense of self-preservation). However, that's as nothing compare to the patience of the TECs, who's endless patience dismantling the back end of Bromptons and the like must gain nothing but admiration. I salute you all - and the wonderful people at the Edifice (even though I was sorely disturbed by the misplaced apostrophes on the cupboard doors). And, of course, Simon.

 

[Kies]

Amazed at the multitude of lights on display, one in particular caught my eye (no pun intended). It was some sort of fibre filament on a black rucksack. The whole thing flashed in a nice blue hue

 

[User10571]

Every time I see them, I loose a night's sleep.

I'm deliberating as to whether you're looseness is deliberate -just to see whether anyone spots it.

 

[Tim Hall]

I'm deliberating as to whether you're looseness is deliberate -just to see whether anyone spots it.

One would hope that it is. Never mind the apostrophe apoplexy, it's the free and easy way with the spelling of Brownies that really grates.

 

[Steve Jones]

Loosing a night's sleep is, of course, possible although if you did this for every misplace apostrophe, you would spend a lit of time in the land of nod.

Nb. on the subject of punctures, with 70 cyclists, two tyres each, on a 110km run equals approximately 38.5 hectares of rubber-to-road contact assuming an average 25mm-wide contact width (normal to the direction of travel). If there were 20 punctures, then that's approximately one per football-pitch worth of contact area. I offer the punctures-per-football pitch as an appropriate unit for measuring puncture frequencies.

 

[srw]

imho there was also space to the left

There is never space on the left. That is not a matter of opinion - that is a matter of safety and courtesy, especially to tired riders. Believe me when I say that having someone creeping up on the left of a tandem that's about to cut the apex of a corner because that's the only way to do it safely is scary.

There is almost always space on the right, even if you have to do a car (i.e. cross the white line).

 

[srw]

Can I admit that I'm secretly pleased we didn't plan to join you on the way to Brighton? We had thought that we'd spend the three-day weekend riding around the Chilterns. Instead the weather gods seem to be having a laugh at the expense of Buckinghamshire, and we spent yesterday afternoon tidying up the house. We will get out this afternoon and tomorrow, and see you on the way to the east coast and the Thames Estuary.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I had to do a last minute repair with bacofoil to one of my rear lights. Such was the intense concentration that this took, and so proud was I of the result, that I completely forgot to switch out the batteries in my front lights for recharged ones. There was a case when an airliner crashed into a swamp because the entire flight crew were concentrating on a faulty warning light. This was a bit like that, losing sight of the big picture. Despite having a small supply of emergency AAs in my ballast tank tool kit, it meant my front lighting was rather underpowered, so I really had to ride on someone's wheel in the dark bits. On one occasion this meant cranking up the effort level a little on a long uphill.

Re undertaking: In general, I think the Fridays rides are remarkably disciplined considering the broad spread of riders. Most people, like me, simply learn by copying so the key thing is culture rather than lots of specific rules - and I thing the Fridays have it broadly right.

And if anyone's reading this, and thinking "That's rich coming from him: he's the idiot who keeps doing X" then let me know! If I had been unknowingly drifting up on the left of riders in front before, it's certainly not something I'll do now. So seasoning the culture with a rule or two now and then does work.

Re apostrophes. Once I had noticed them, my eye was repeatedly drawn back to to them. I had to go outside.

 

[anothersam]

I've broken some.

 

[anothersam]

and today's Golden Rule: Loose is not lose.

 

[StuAff]

On undertaking, if anyone needs a further reminder, just watch this:

IMHO, I've seen enough bad riding habits on the Dun Run, the IOW Randonnee and other mass events. I was undertaken half a dozen times on the DD this year, and most of the miscreants couldn't even be bothered to give a warning. It's not pleasant to be on the receiving end of that kind of idiocy, trust me. It's not complicated, don't do it......Let's not infect FNRttCs with this disease.

In discussions at the Madeira with Thom and others, the consensus was there were more than thirteen punctures- Thom had fixed a slow deflation on his own bike, and there were at least a couple of others where impromputu somewhere-in-the-middle charlies were helping out. We might just have beaten that unwanted record total.....

Did have thoughts of taking Chutney out for its first FNR of the year, it's going for a service on Tuesday so I might as well get it a bit dirty first, but in view of the unanimity of the weather forecasts, the bike with the mudguards and the disc brakes seemed most appropriate for my second night ride of the week (the first, due to acts of Network Rail, was 19 miles home from Eastleigh in the early hours of Thursday morning, also in the rain). And so it proved. Colleagues at work managed to cease procrastinating long enough to enable me to make the train of choice, which was (praise be) on time, again. SWT are almost making a habit of that. HPC saw a large but clearly somewhat depleted peloton compared to the list. A bit of rain forecast and some people just wimp out, tsk tsk....Lovely to see Mr Allsopp making another, all too brief visit- on his wedding anniversary, no less. And Lee, on an FNR for the first time in ages....

And off we went. First couple of hours were dry and very pleasant, though the all-too-frequent visitations did slow things down somewhat. OK, a lot. Regroups dragged on as certain people had insisted on riding bikes with tyres that were hard to change yet made of cheese. Portnalls Road proved a nice gentle warm-up for the lumps to come, as it always does, through Reigate, and then...The heavens opened at half two somewhere north of Horley, and I was glad I had the wet gear. The jacket, which had been a bit warm for the conditions, instantly became just right, and the waterproof trousers went on in Horley. Stayed warm and dry(ish) throughout. Which was nice, unlike the weather. Sam's decision that it was too much on his personal toughometer was perfectly understandable. As usual, easier for me to carry on than get a train...Our hosts at the scout hut did their usual, exemplary service, and the plague of locusts did an equally fine job in reducing any surplus to a minimum.

At some point after the daylight began to fight its way through the mist, my chain decided to jam, thanks to @slowmotion for extricating it. Apart from that, zero issues (not counting whatever it is that keeps clunking in the Portland's drivetrain, that can wait till the next service). Ditchling conquered without recourse to bottom gear, 30x26 as low as it got. And then down to Brighton, blighted only slightly by one moron in a Citroen Picasso who felt the need to use his horn as he sped past me and Tacey- both of us had left plenty of room.

After breakfast, the plan was, as usual, to ride back. There was nothing wrong with my speed, despite the headwind, but by the time I got to Worthing my enthusiasm for spending another three hours in the rain was fading (it wasn't just Worthing....). The steady rain then became a torrential downpour, making the decision to head to the station rather more straightforward. Made it five minutes before the next train west (just before ten), and as if to confirm my decision was the right one, there was thunder as I stood on the platform. Home at eleven, nap not long after.

Thanks one and all. Southwold part deux next